Stories

These are the stories of a few of the women we support, their stories are typical:

Kanchi. Her first husband left her and her second husband died of a heart attack in the jungle. She has two young sons, that are 8 and 10 years old, and an older son of 18. When there are orders she works on building sites as a welder.

Ganga is a widow and has a daughter whose husband left her. She makes carpets when there are orders and washes clothes.

Kesari. Her husband left her when she developed leprosy and she has raised her five children on her own. The youngest is now in class 12 and wants to be engaged in medical work. Kesari worked for the Government Bus service which closed down owing staff one year’s salary. She was without work for a long time and now has a small job at Women Without Roofs. Not only that, she also qualified for a house to be built for her by the Leprosy mission (through Anandaban hospital) provided she owned land, so WWR bought the land for her and she now has a new house!

Kesari with her new house on the land we bought for her

Ambika is 38 yrs old, she does labour work in building construction. Ambika’s husband is still in jail and her only provision is 30 kg rice. She has 3 daughters and one son. Sometimes she does not get work.

Sita was left by her husband and has a 13 year old son. She does household work and weaves carpets. She is sick very often so we are paying her medical expenses too.

In order to raise funds for Women Without Roofs we buy and sell jewellery made by a craft cooperative in Kathmandu – here is an amazing story from one of their women:

Ram Devi is a 42 year old mother of 3 children. She and her husband are now both Christians and this is her story.

She was married at 18 to a Hindu man and duly gave birth to her 3 children. Her marriage was like most Hindu marriages with the daily ritual of puja and submitting completely to the will of her alcoholic husband.

Some years ago she was visiting her friend who was a Christian and read the verse in the bible about turning the other cheek. She laughed at this and her friend asked her not to laugh at her friend Jesus. Soon after this she had a dream about children drowning in a pond; Jesus appeared saying he would save them. Then her sister was diagnosed with liver cancer and she died. It was evening and everyone was crying. Ram Devi held her children and asked God to bring her sister back to life. Just as the family were about to take the body to be cremated, her sister sat up, alive and healed. From that day Ram Devi believed in God.

She started going to church and her husband became angry and refused to feed her and her children. She prayed about this and a white light came into the room. From that day on she didn’t need to buy food and the food in the house never ran out.

Two years ago she was diagnosed with TB and her eyesight began to deteriorate. She was treated for this but the treatment was unsuccessful and she could not afford to pay for the new treatment, neither could she afford to buy glasses to help her see. Her daughter was also studying for her School Leaving Certificate but in the last 2 years has been unable to go to school as Ram Devi could not afford the registration fees.

She is now one of the leaders in Emmanuel Crafts. From the profits, her medication and children’s schooling are all paid for. She is very thankful to God for providing her with work and every blessing that has come with it.